How to Harvest Lavender the Easy Way!

I just taught myself how to harvest Lavender the easy way! I didn’t follow any expert instructions, but it still worked. Now I have three mason jars full of dried Lavender ready for DIY projects! Here’s how I did it…

Last Summer, our Lavender in our front gardens was growing quite nicely and at the end of the Summer I had regretted not learning how to harvest any of it to use for crafts, sachets and the like.

This Summer, our Lavender took off like it was on garden steroids and was a gorgeous feast for the eyes all season long!

Lavender: 40 seconds of zen!

Here’s a 40 second video I took in July so you can see the bees enjoying the pretty flowers!

Beautiful, right?

Note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. I explain more here.

How to Harvest Lavender the easy way!

What I was supposed to do…

I’ve seen various articles online and on Pinterest about the proper ways to harvest Lavender.

Some of them had so many steps, I gave up reading.

Others had very specific instructions.

Many articles stressed that you have to harvest the lavender just as its reaching its peak of blooming, or before it’s about to bloom or when it’s in full bloom…

Can you see why I was so confused?

And most articles mentioned that you have to hang bunches upside down in a darkened room to completely dry out.

What I chose to do…

As I gazed at our stunning Lavender every day and evening, and enjoyed its wonderful scent, I could not bring myself to cut it off just for the sake of harvesting at the perfect time.

So I didn’t do it.

A couple of weeks ago, in the midst of Heat Wave #27 — or so it seemed — I decided that the Lavender was already past its prime as the flowers were all dried up.

It was time to prune the Lavender down to the delicate silvery-grey leaves.

I went outside and looked at the dried Lavender and wondered why in the world I couldn’t just harvest it right then and there?

It was already dried by the sun, and maybe the color wasn’t as vibrant, but the scent seemed to still be there.

So I simply cut off the flower stalks and tossed them into a few foil trays.

The next day I sat at our breakfast room table — in air-conditioned bliss — and rubbed my fingers along the flower stems so that the dried Lavender quickly fell off into an empty foil tray.

It took awhile removing the dried Lavender from the stems but the scent was so relaxing that I didn’t mind.

Before I knew it — I had filled three mason jars full of dried Lavender!

And by the way — what I harvested was only one half of one patch of Lavender.

Had the weather not been so grossly hot and humid, I would have gladly stayed outside to harvest all of it carefully.

Instead, after I got a few trays full, I was a sweaty mess and just wanted to complete the pruning chore before I died of heatstroke.

So I became a pruning banshee, cutting the rest of the lavender off as fast as possible before I collapsed.

What can you make with dried Lavender?

There are all kinds of crafts that can be made with dried Lavender, such as soaps, candles and of course sachets.

I’m not sure what I will do, but I love that I harvested the Lavender on my own terms and in a much easier way than most experts will instruct you to do.

And one more thing…

I have a pretty sachet that I received as a Christmas gift. Out of curiosity, I opened it up to compare the color of the dried Lavender to what I had just harvested and the colors were identical!

So there you go!

How to harvest Lavender in the easiest way possible!

Want to know which variety of Lavender I grow?

It’s called Lavender Phenomenal and is the best for heat, humidity and cold tolerance! Click on the highlighted text to learn all about why I recommend it!

Comments

You’re welcome Barb! It almost seems too easy, right? Our entire home was scented with Lavender too — just ask my very patient husband — so I really don’t think it lost any of its scent. Let me know if you try this!

I have a big plastic box full of lavender that I have just cut. It took ages last year to harvest it but this sounds so quick I am going to try it. Love lavender. I’ve heard you can use it to flavour biscuits as well so will try that too. Thank you so much for making a boring chore a lot quicker and with the added smell! mmmmmmmmm!

Thanks for asking, Marty! The kind of lavender I grow is called Phenomenal Lavender. This variety is cold-hardy, keeping its color in the Winter months, and handles heat and humidity well. If your lavender flowers in the first season after planting, I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to harvest it in the first Fall. Your yield might not be as great, if the plants are still young, but treat them well and by the second year the plants will grow nice and full!

Pet Scribbles is where I share my craft tutorials, home and garden projects, and occasional stories about my cats. I can never have enough pretty craft paints to work with, and I love to make things look time-worn with distressing and aging. Gardening is my therapy!

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